Keith and I both hope to be able to attend "Thunda Down Under"[1] in
2015, and I've sent the organizers email requesting information on what
it takes to be treated as an on-site vendor.
Of course, it's always more fun to be at a launch when you have something
interesting to fly! Thus, while Keith and I might each show up with a
modest "travel rocket" of some sort... I've started pondering possible
larger "Altus Metrum" group projects. Since transporting a large
airframe to Australia would be a hassle, I wonder if a group project to
build an airframe in-country makes more sense? To that end, I'd be
pleased to know if any of our friends and customers in Australia want to
sign up to help with such a project?
My thoughts would be to engage in some group-think about project scope
and goals, then hope friends in-country would take on the sourcing and
preparation of suitable airframe materials. Depending on who wants to
participate and how tasks get taken up, we might plan to arrive a bit
early to help with any final assembly or other preparations,
installation of suitably fresh Altus Metrum electronics, etc.
So, to all our Aussie friends... does this sound like fun? If so,
please chime in with a reply. I don't expect the email associated with
such a project to be too heavy a load for this list to carry, but we can
always spawn a dedicated lists.gag.com list if I'm wrong.
Regards,
Bdale
[1] http://thunda.com.au/
I flew my TeleMega, serial #1639 with 1.4.1 at Balls in a 2 stager.
Ran into a few problems, as follows:
1. Unable to connect in to TeleDongle in idle mode. I had previously
found that I couldn't get a connection with the TeleMega in channels
7-9, so I was using channel 3 for this flight. I was unable to get a
connection in idle mode in Channel 3. I haven't explored other channel
or tried to re-create this problem.
2. RFI issue with Beelines. The rocket had 4 Beeline trackers in it as follows:
- 1x 100mw 70cm GPS aprox 30" above the TeleMega on 434.350
- 1x 70cm beacon aprox 6" below the TeleMega on 438.850
- 1x 16mw 70cm GPS aprox 48" below the TeleMega on 434.350
- 1x 70cm beacon aprox 48" below the TeleMega on 438.350.
With any combination of the beacons turned on, attempting to startup
the TeleMega in pad mode would result in battery voltage beeps, pad
mode beeps followed by silence, on both the radio (I was listening in
to 434.850 on my FT1DR) and buzzer (ie, no continuity beeps). After
spending an afternoon troubleshooting this, it was determined that
turning on any combination of the Beelines prior to startup would
cause this, but turning them on after the TeleMega was transmitting
didn't result in any adverse affects.
In investigating the manual post-flight, I did note the point about
twisting wires, which I did not do on this flight as I hadn't seen it
previously. I'm not certain that that would have fixed the issue or
not. It would be really really great if there was a separate manual
for each product. It's very easy to miss things when you are
intentionally skipping a significant portion of the manual since it
doesn't relate to the product you are interested in. Additionally,
this is the only time I've seen a suggestion in a manual to twist
wires. This comes in a section of the manual, that in most other
rocket electronics manuals, is reserved for things like "how to attach
wires to screw terminals" and "how to not have battery issues", which
experienced fliers have a tendency to already know and skim.
3. Accel calibration with temp. After spending an afternoon at the pad
troubleshooting the above issue, the rocket sat overnight and was
powered up within 30 minutes of sunrise. I was unable to get the
TeleMega into pad mode until it had been in the sun for 10 minutes, at
which point, it went into pad mode and read a Z accel of -5.1m/s/s. We
left the rocket in the sun for the next 45 minutes and in that time,
the Z accel when it was being held vertically had migrated from -5.1
to -3.3 to -2.2 and was continuing its upward trend. The accelerometer
was previously calibrated at room temp 2 weeks prior to the launch.
4. Angle lockout for staging-not so much a bug as it's probably
exactly what it's designed to do, but I had the telemega setup to do
staging and also staging inhibit on a backup timer. The TeleMega was
to stage if conditions were after burnout, >4 seconds into flight, <25
degrees and >400m/s. I had an additional circuit acting to open the
igniter circuit on a timer I was using for backup. This was to occur
if the angle exceeded 25 degrees at any point. Shortly after the
breakup, the inhibit circuit fired as anticipated. What I didn't
expect was for the fire circuit to fire as the rocket rolled back
within 25 degrees of vertical 2 seconds later. Fortunately the igniter
had already ripped out of the motor, so no harm was done, but this
could have been interesting had it not.
Anyway, hopefully this helps alleviate frustration for at least
someone. I understand the issues now and they're more annoyances that
I can live with than anything. As I hadn't seen them documented
previously, I figured I'd put them out there. Let me know if anyone
has further questions or needs more elaboration.
Thanks,
-Andrew
FWIW, moving the TeleBT closer to the phone is often actually exactly what
you don't want to do.
I've found it works best if the TeleBT is at least a foot or two away from
the device it's trying to communicate with.
-Kevin
-----Original Message-----
From: altusmetrum [mailto:altusmetrum-bounces@lists.gag.com] On Behalf Of
W7AMI
Sent: Sunday, October 19, 2014 10:15 AM
To: Altus Metrum
Subject: [altusmetrum] TeleBT Connect Issue
Issue:
Having problems establishing a link between the TeleGPS and cell phone.
Equipment:
TeleGPS
TeleBT
Samsung Galaxy S3 with Android 4.3
AltosDroid 1.5
Notes:
I test my tracking set up at home before I leave for the launch site and
every thing works correctly. The phone quickly connects to the TeleBT
and begins to announce the rocket status. When I power up everything
at the launch site the phone will not connect to the TeleBT. I have
tried closing and reopening the AltosDroid app, moving the TeleBT and
the phone closer together and power cycling the phone. At some point
while closing and reopening the AltosDroid app the app freezes on a
black screen and I have to reboot the phone to get it working again.
Eventually, the phone will connect to the TeleBT and once connected
everything works correctly. Yesterday it took almost 15 minutes to get
the phone to connect to the TeleBT. When it does connect it doesn't
seem to be due to anything that I have tried, it just finally decides to
connect.
This has happened each of the three times that I have taken this set up
out to the launch site. The launch site is out in the middle of
nowhere in the desert. There is some kind of microwave communications
site about 3 miles from the launch pad but otherwise nothing that should
interfere with a bluetooth link. Phone service is spotty at best at
the launch site.
Any ideas what could be happening? Does the app require phone service
to work correctly?
Terry
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I woulda been scared the Telemega wouldn't perform even if you did get it
to cycle by turning it on first and then firing up the Beelines. Did you try just
activating one of the Beelines such as the low powered ones in sequence?
They usually play well with most deployment electronics. The 100mW unit
is the one I'd have concern over. If it's Rf, your option is to shield the Telemega
with metal. If you can apply some stick on sheeting to the inside of the ebay and the
bulkheads that might mitigate the problem. Kurt
Hi Altus Metrum mailing list.
I had a bit of a crack at updating the firmwares on my relevant Altus
Metrum devices over the weekend. Unfortunately I didn't have much success.
My assumption is that the TeleMetrum v1.2 requires the Debug Cable (
http://shop.gag.com/parts-and-accessories/pair-programming-debug-cable.html)
to be connected before it will allow a Firmware upgrade. Can someone
confirm this? FYI I'm attempting to update the firmware over USB with the
latest AltOS build on a Windows 7 box. Every time I try I'm met with a
Debug Cable not connected error, or something to that effect (I forgot to
screen shot it and am now at work). I believe I've read this in the AltOS
documentation in the past but it appears that the latest revisions of the
document don't include this information.
Strangely enough my TeleMini v1.0 is also giving the same error when I
attempt to update the firmware on it as well. I say strangely because the
board's so small I can't easily imagine connecting a debug cable to the
board. Anyone here care to comment on how to action a firmware upgrade on
the TeleMini v1.0 board and what benefits are garnered from upgrading the
firmware as opposed to running the stock (1.0.3 I believe) build.
Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Cheers,
Andrew Hamilton
